People We Love :: Cheryl Honey

posted Feb 03, 2008

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Weaving Together Communities

Fifteen years ago, Cheryl Honey was an unemployed mother struggling to raise her four children. After turning to social services for help, she realized that she “wasn’t broken and didn’t need to be fixed”—she just lacked the support network she needed.

Honey got her neighbors together to find out how they might share skills, resources, and friendship. That network has since grown into the nonprofit Family Support Network International. FSN makes connections between volunteer “Good Neighbors” and those in need of the resources they can offer. Neighbors volunteer to provide rides and childcare, fix toilets and cars, organize community events, and offer havens from domestic abuse and homelessness.

Honey also trains “Community Weavers” who can replicate her model in their own neighborhoods. For Honey, the way to create supportive communities is to “weave a safety net by connecting people together.”